Identifying mobile device location and corresponding support center locations to provide support services over a network

ABSTRACT

A mobile device may receive updates, support and other data from a current data center agent platform. When the mobile device travels to another location the nearest data center agent may be different from the previous agent. A changeover determination must be performed prior to determining whether the new agent should be assigned to the mobile device. One example method of operation may include receiving current location information of the mobile device and identifying a present location of the mobile device and a current service center assigned to the mobile device. The method may also provide determining whether a new service center location at a remote location from the current service center location should be assigned to the mobile device based on predefined assignment criteria.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE APPLICATION

This application relates to identifying a mobile device location andauthentication application that monitors the mobile device location andother device attributes to identify a potential customer support centerlocation to provide optimized support services.

BACKGROUND OF THE APPLICATION

Conventionally, a mobile device may be tracked via its IP address, basestation service center, GPS coordinates, etc. The user operating thedevice may, in turn, receive information related to the device's currentlocation. For example, a user may be in a particular town or city andmay receive push notifications based on current weather conditions,proximity to certain services or retail outlets and/or otherinformation, such as alerts, warnings, news, etc.

A mobile device that is connected to an enterprise network may alsorequire certain mobility functions beyond the conventional consumerapplications identified above. For example, an employee of a largeenterprise corporation may be traveling around the country and may usevarious proprietary applications that are customized for the enterpriseusers. The support and related information technology and support (IT)functions required to access and maintain connectivity to thoseapplications may be required at any particular time and at anyparticular geographical location. However, a user's customary supportsite/server may be in a remote location that is no longer the mostoptimal support site for a traveling customer operating a mobile device.

SUMMARY OF THE APPLICATION

One embodiment of the present application may include a method thatprovides receiving current location information of a mobile device,identifying a present location of the mobile device and a currentservice center assigned to the mobile device, determining whether a newservice center location at a remote location from the current servicecenter location should be assigned to the mobile device based onpredefined assignment criteria, and assigning the mobile device to thenew service center location.

Another example embodiment of the present application provides anapparatus that includes a receiver configured to receive currentlocation information of a mobile device, and a processor configured toidentify a present location of the mobile device and a current servicecenter assigned to the mobile device, determine whether a new servicecenter location at a remote location from the current service centerlocation should be assigned to the mobile device based on predefinedassignment criteria, and assign the mobile device to the new servicecenter location.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network configuration, according toexample embodiments of the present application.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a user device being located andassigned an agent, according to example embodiments of the presentapplication.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example communication system signaling diagram ofa mobile device agent application according to example embodiments.

FIG. 3B illustrates another example communication system signalingdiagram of a mobile device agent application according to exampleembodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method according to anexample embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 5 illustrates a system configuration that is configured to performone or more operations corresponding to the example embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example network entity device configured to storeinstructions, software, and corresponding hardware for executing thesame, according to example embodiments of the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE APPLICATION

It will be readily understood that the components of the presentapplication, as generally described and illustrated in the figuresherein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of differentconfigurations. Thus, the following detailed description of theembodiments of a method, apparatus, and system, as represented in theattached figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the applicationas claimed, but is merely representative of selected embodiments of theapplication.

The features, structures, or characteristics of the applicationdescribed throughout this specification may be combined in any suitablemanner in one or more embodiments. For example, the usage of the phrases“example embodiments”, “some embodiments”, or other similar language,throughout this specification refers to the fact that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the presentapplication. Thus, appearances of the phrases “example embodiments”, “insome embodiments”, “in other embodiments”, or other similar language,throughout this specification do not necessarily all refer to the samegroup of embodiments, and the described features, structures, orcharacteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments.

In addition, while the term “message” has been used in the descriptionof embodiments of the present application, the application may beapplied to many types of network data, such as, packet, frame, datagram,etc. For purposes of this application, the term “message” also includespacket, frame, datagram, and any equivalents thereof. Furthermore, whilecertain types of messages and signaling are depicted in exemplaryembodiments of the application, the application is not limited to acertain type of message, and the application is not limited to a certaintype of signaling.

According to example embodiments of the present application, anadministrator may be any information technology (IT) systemsadministrator, IT service provider, and/or computer owner/operator whoprovides administrative functions to the computer devices, communicationbased connections and other network resources. An administrator machinemay be any network-connected computer device operated by theadministrator. The administrator machines may be connected directly to aserver machine, or over a remote network connection to a server, managedmachines and other computer networking machines.

An administrator application may be a web-based application that permitsthe administrator machine, a server, etc., to manage one or moreremotely managed machines. A secure network channel may be setup andestablished between the administrator machine and the managed machinevia the administrator application. The secure network channel mayprovide connections over which data packets may be exchanged. Thenetwork channel may pass through a wide area network (WAN) (e.g. theInternet) or through a private local area network (LAN).

An agent application may be an application that includes a processoperating on the remote administrator machine and/or another processoperating on an active user interface on the remotely managed device(e.g., laptop, computer, smartphone, mobile device, etc.). The agentapplication accepts connections from the administrator application andassists with initiating a channel and transmitting and receivingcommands and data. An administrator plug-in may be a browser plug-inoperating in the context of the administrator application that connectswith and interacts with the agent process of the administrator machineover the existing network channel to the agent application of themanaged machine. The administrator machine may be a server providingautomated processing and/or a personal computing device operated by anadministrator IT personnel, etc.

According to one example embodiment, a mobile device may be operated aspart of a local area network, mobile communication network, wide areanetwork or other communication network. The mobile device may beoperating according to a 3G/4G data communication scheme and may becommunicating over the Internet to support center servers, locationservers, and other IT infrastructure communication nodes to provideongoing data, support services and other functions to the mobile deviceusers.

Large enterprise corporations may have access to large-scale IT servernetworks with help centers around the country or even the world. Themobile device may require localized assistance or may be communicatingwith one service agent computer/server and may be traveling towardsanother service agent machine via an automobile, train, walking, etc. Insuch cases, it may be prudent to evaluate the type of service the mobiledevice is using, the bandwidth requirements, the communicationfrequency, the urgency or importance of the data, etc.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network 100 according toexample embodiments. Referring to FIG. 1, the user 102 may be operatinga mobile device 104 that is located in the field (e.g., any locationoutside a fixed network location). The mobile device 104 may have acurrent connection with a data center ‘B’ 130. The present distance D2129 may be larger than a distance to another site of data center ‘A’120. The distance to data center ‘A’ 120 may be D1 125 which is only 50miles as opposed to D2 which is 100 miles. As a result, a web-based webservice may serve as a communication bridge between the server agentsand the mobile device 104. The location tracking and decision servicemay be initiated by a third party service that acknowledges the GPScoordinates of the mobile device 104 via a javascript object notation(JSON) format and identifies requests for services.

The JSON data format may be used to provide the location services andmay include an agent ID, an agent type, which can represent a computer,server or mobile device, a timestamp, composed of a date and time and/ora GPS location, including latitude and longitude. Messages sharedbetween the proximity service server 140 and the agent nodes 120 and 130will use the same format. The service may process messages and use themessage type, timestamp, and location to determine the distance andspeed a mobile device is from other agents or devices. The servicedetermines this information by comparing every newly received messagewith previously stored messages. Calculations for distance and speed canbe made using a simple distance and speed formula. A device with anagent application installed and/or a mobile application can transmit amessage to the service at any point in time. After the serviceacknowledges the message, the service is then aware of the mobile devicegeo-location and proximity to other potentially nearby data centeragents.

According to one example, if the mobile device 104 is within a givendistance of an agent data center 120, 130, etc., a notification can besent from the service server 140 to the mobile device 104 with specificinformation about nearby service agents or services, via the devicenotifications system or direct from the agent centers 120 or 130. Amobile device 104 with GPS capabilities and a software client agentinstalled may provide such information when the mobile device 104changes its movement in location from somewhere in between the two datacenters 120 and 130. For example, the agent application may transmit thelocation information as a location update message to the first datacenter 120 to record the movement. If the device 104 begins to travelaway from ‘A’ 120 and closer to ‘B’ the service application determinesthe device 104 is closing-in on the distance to ‘B’, the agentapplication operating in the mobile device 104 or the correspondingmobile application will now become enabled to begin receivingnotifications and information from agents in the ‘B’ location 130.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example mobile device movement scenario accordingto example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 2, the mobile device 204 maybe operating in the southern California region and may be moving towardsPortland Oreg. Both sites in California and Oregon have a service agentcenter 230 and 210, respectively. At some point in the driving exampleof a user driving from one site towards another, the applicationfunction(s), support and related data messages may be more optimal ifhandled by the other data center due to a change in proximity from onesite to the other. A location server 250 may maintain coordinates of themobile device from GPS data or other information, such as a base stationidentifier and location or other tracking mechanisms. The distance fromone site to another may be recalculated each time a distance estimate isperformed by the agent application. The distance threshold for changingfrom one site to another may be a 49/51% distance ratio or may utilize alarger hysteresis threshold that is greater than 1% such as 3% or 5% oreven 20% of a distance to reduce a ‘ping-pong’ effect. For example, themobile device must actually be 5% closer to the next site then theprevious site (e.g., 45 miles away from new site vs. 55 miles away fromcurrent site) before a changeover occurs assuming the hysteresis is 5%.Other sites may offer additional options for a traveling mobile device,such as site 220 in Idaho. The network 202 may be used by the locationserver 250 to weigh all the options prior to performing a changeover bycalculating a weighted function of all service support centers based onvariables, such as distance, type of problem, user's home supportcenter, etc.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example communication system signaling diagram ofa mobile device agent application according to example embodiments.Referring to FIG. 3A, the signaling example 300 includes a user device310 communicating with a location identification server 320 and an agentserver 330 which provides live support to the mobile device. Inoperation, the location server 320 may be a separate server or aseparate processing module of the same server as the agent server 330.

In operation, the mobile device 310 may upload information about itslocation 340 periodically to the location server service 320. Thelocation may change and this may be the basis for a changeover from onesupport center to another support center. Service related messages 342may be sent to the present support server 330 to receive support for anytype of service either via customer support, background updates, etc.The mobile device agent function may receive messages 344 related to thepresent support effort. As periodic location information is received viaGPS or other location identification functions, the user device locationmay be updated 345 and compared 346 to other service sites applicable tothe user application or device. Also, other changeover criteria may beexplored in order to determine whether to perform the changeover asillustrated in FIG. 3B.

In the event that a closer support center is identified 348 viadistance, network cost utilization (i.e., device hops, bandwidthrequirements, network cost utilization, etc.) and/or other factors, thenthe changeover may be triggered to a closer agent or a more appropriatesupport center given the distance and/or other factors. As a result, therequest for the changeover may be initiated 350 and the handover may beconfirmed 352 and a new service center may be utilized 354.

FIG. 3B illustrates another example communication system signalingdiagram of a mobile device agent application according to exampleembodiments. In FIG. 3B, the sequence of operations 360 begin the sameas those in FIG. 3A, however, the changeover considerations arereanalyzed for additional considerations and factors prior to engagingin a changeover. For example, first a subject topic of a live sessionmay be analyzed 362 and the agent service personnel at the initialsupport center, the new support center, other support centers may belogged in a subject content file for each facility and referenced toidentify whether the personnel are qualified to assist the mobile devicein the event of a changeover. If not, then that particular supportcenter may be disregarded. Next, a current status of the support session364 may be identified and if the support session is believed to be morethan a predetermined threshold complete, then that session may bedisregarded from consideration. Thresholds may include, for example 50%completion, 60% completion, 75% completion, or more. In such a case, thechangeover may be considered counterproductive even though networkresources may be alleviated due to a closer facility. Progress of asession may be based on time, personnel logging the session, or certainmilestones of the session being reached. Other factors may include theuser's session history 366, for example, whether the user device hasbeen serviced by that facility before or not. If so, the changeover maybe performed accordingly, and if not, the changeover may be disregarded.All the above-noted examples may be performed based on a particularthreshold value 368 of certainty, completion or other variables used tomake a changeover determination.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example flow diagram of an example method ofoperation according to example embodiments. Referring to FIG. 4, theexample method may include receiving current location information of amobile device at operation 402 and identifying a present location of themobile device and a current service center assigned to the mobile deviceat operation 404. The method may also include determining whether a newservice center location at a remote location from the current servicecenter location should be assigned to the mobile device based onpredefined assignment criteria at operation 406. The assignment criteriais generally related to optimizing network and communicationperformance, which is primarily based on distance, likelihood of successand other factors. Changeovers should only be performed when the userdevice can still benefit from the effort. The method then includesassigning the mobile device to the new service center location atoperation 408.

FIG. 5 illustrates a system configuration that is configured to performone or more operations corresponding to the example embodiments.Referring to FIG. 5, the agent location and assignment system 500 mayinclude a location detection module 510 which receives current locationinformation of a mobile device and determines the present location ofthe support service via module 520 and the present location of theprospective support center(s). The system may then provide identifying apresent location of the mobile device and a current service centerassigned to the mobile device via the agent determination module 520.The agent assignment module 530 may then determine whether a new servicecenter location at a remote location from the current service centerlocation should be assigned to the mobile device based on predefinedassignment criteria and then assign the mobile device to the new servicecenter location. All information used to make the determinationdecisions is stored in an agent location information database 540.

According to other examples, the system 500 may perform identifying themobile device is presently communicating with the current service centerand is receiving support messages of a first predetermined subjecttopic, and identifying a plurality of other service center locationsdifferent from the current service center location and selecting otherservice center locations which are associated with the firstpredetermined subject topic. The system may then perform determiningwhether the other service center locations are closer in distance to themobile device location than the current service center location. Thesedeterminations may provide the basis for a changeover operation.

The system may then determine whether a new service center location at aremote location from the current service center location should beassigned to the mobile device based on predefined assignment criteria byidentifying a current status of the support session, and also bydetermining whether a current status of the support session indicatesthat the support session is near completion. As a result, if the supportsession is near completion then the current support session with thecurrent support center can be maintained, and if the support session isless than a predetermined threshold of completion then reassigning thesupport session to the new service center location which is closer indistance. The threshold may be anywhere between 51% and 99% completion.

The predefined assignment criteria may be a location between the mobiledevice and the current support center, a subject topic being discussedin the support session, a current completion status of the supportsession, and a previous session occurrence between the mobile device andthe current support center. Also, when assigning the mobile device tothe new service center location the mobile device may be assigned to thenew support center while the current support center session is stilloperating so the device is receiving simultaneous support from two ormore support centers until the support centers decide the device isready to be serviced by only one support center.

The operations of a method or algorithm described in connection with theembodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in acomputer program executed by a processor, or in a combination of thetwo. A computer program may be embodied on a computer readable medium,such as a storage medium. For example, a computer program may reside inrandom access memory (“RAM”), flash memory, read-only memory (“ROM”),erasable programmable read-only memory (“EPROM”), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (“EEPROM”), registers, hard disk, aremovable disk, a compact disk read-only memory (“CD-ROM”), or any otherform of storage medium known in the art.

An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to the processor such thatthe processor may read information from, and write information to, thestorage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integralto the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in anapplication specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”). In the alternative,the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components.For example FIG. 6 illustrates an example network element 600, which mayrepresent any of the above-described network components, etc.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, a memory 610 and a processor 620 may bediscrete components of the network entity 600 that are used to executean application or set of operations. The application may be coded insoftware in a computer language understood by the processor 620, andstored in a computer readable medium, such as, the memory 610. Thecomputer readable medium may be a non-transitory computer readablemedium that includes tangible hardware components in addition tosoftware stored in memory. Furthermore, a software module 630 may beanother discrete entity that is part of the network entity 600, andwhich contains software instructions that may be executed by theprocessor 620. In addition to the above noted components of the networkentity 600, the network entity 600 may also have a transmitter andreceiver pair configured to receive and transmit communication signals(not shown).

Although an exemplary embodiment of the system, method, and computerreadable medium of the present invention has been illustrated in theaccompanied drawings and described in the foregoing detaileddescription, it will be understood that the invention is not limited tothe embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements,modifications, and substitutions without departing from the spirit orscope of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims.For example, the capabilities of the system of FIG. 5 can be performedby one or more of the modules or components described herein or in adistributed architecture and may include a transmitter, receiver or pairof both. For example, all or part of the functionality performed by theindividual modules, may be performed by one or more of these modules.Further, the functionality described herein may be performed at varioustimes and in relation to various events, internal or external to themodules or components. Also, the information sent between variousmodules can be sent between the modules via at least one of: a datanetwork, the Internet, a voice network, an Internet Protocol network, awireless device, a wired device and/or via plurality of protocols. Also,the messages sent or received by any of the modules may be sent orreceived directly and/or via one or more of the other modules.

One skilled in the art will appreciate that a “system” could be embodiedas a personal computer, a server, a console, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a cell phone, a tablet computing device, a smartphoneor any other suitable computing device, or combination of devices.Presenting the above-described functions as being performed by a“system” is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention inany way, but is intended to provide one example of many embodiments ofthe present invention. Indeed, methods, systems and apparatusesdisclosed herein may be implemented in localized and distributed formsconsistent with computing technology.

It should be noted that some of the system features described in thisspecification have been presented as modules, in order to moreparticularly emphasize their implementation independence. For example, amodule may be implemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom verylarge scale integration (VLSI) circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelfsemiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discretecomponents. A module may also be implemented in programmable hardwaredevices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable arraylogic, programmable logic devices, graphics processing units, or thelike.

A module may also be at least partially implemented in software forexecution by various types of processors. An identified unit ofexecutable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical orlogical blocks of computer instructions that may, for instance, beorganized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, theexecutables of an identified module need not be physically locatedtogether, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in differentlocations which, when joined logically together, comprise the module andachieve the stated purpose for the module. Further, modules may bestored on a computer-readable medium, which may be, for instance, a harddisk drive, flash device, random access memory (RAM), tape, or any othersuch medium used to store data.

Indeed, a module of executable code could be a single instruction, ormany instructions, and may even be distributed over several differentcode segments, among different programs, and across several memorydevices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustratedherein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form andorganized within any suitable type of data structure. The operationaldata may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed overdifferent locations including over different storage devices, and mayexist, at least partially, merely as electronic signals on a system ornetwork.

It will be readily understood that the components of the invention, asgenerally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may bearranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations.Thus, the detailed description of the embodiments is not intended tolimit the scope of the invention as claimed, but is merelyrepresentative of selected embodiments of the invention.

One having ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that theinvention as discussed above may be practiced with steps in a differentorder, and/or with hardware elements in configurations that aredifferent than those which are disclosed. Therefore, although theinvention has been described based upon these preferred embodiments, itwould be apparent to those of skill in the art that certainmodifications, variations, and alternative constructions would beapparent, while remaining within the spirit and scope of the invention.In order to determine the metes and bounds of the invention, therefore,reference should be made to the appended claims.

While preferred embodiments of the present application have beendescribed, it is to be understood that the embodiments described areillustrative only and the scope of the application is to be definedsolely by the appended claims when considered with a full range ofequivalents and modifications (e.g., protocols, hardware devices,software platforms etc.) thereto.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving current locationinformation of a mobile device; identifying a present location of themobile device and a current service center assigned to the mobiledevice; determining whether a new service center location at a remotelocation from the current service center location should be assigned tothe mobile device based on predefined assignment criteria; and assigningthe mobile device to the new service center location; identifying acurrent status of the support session; determining whether a currentstatus of the support session indicates that the support session is nearcompletion; if the support session is near completion then maintainingthe current support session with the current support center; and if thesupport session is less than a predetermined threshold of completionthen reassigning the support session to the new service center locationwhich is closer in distance.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: identifying the mobile device is presently communicatingwith the current service center and is receiving support messages of afirst predetermined subject topic; identifying a plurality of otherservice center locations different from the current service centerlocation; selecting at least one other service center location among theplurality of other service center locations which is associated with thefirst predetermined subject topic; and determining whether the at leastone other service center location is closer in distance to the mobiledevice location than the current service center location.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein the predefined assignment criteria is at least oneof a location between the mobile device and the current support center,a subject topic being discussed in the support session, a currentcompletion status of the support session, and a previous sessionoccurrence between the mobile device and the current support center. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein assigning the mobile device to the newservice center location comprises assigning the mobile device to the newsupport center while the current support center session is stilloperating.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the assigning the mobiledevice to the new support center comprises assigning at least one usersupport agent of the new support center to the mobile device while thepresent support agent of the current support center is still assigned tothe mobile device via the current support session.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, further comprising discontinuing the current support centerfrom the current support session once the new support center agent andthe present support agent have confirmed the new support center hascontrol of the current support session.
 7. An apparatus comprising: areceiver configured to receive current location information of a mobiledevice; and a processor configured to identify a present location of themobile device and a current service center assigned to the mobiledevice, determine whether a new service center location at a remotelocation from the current service center location should be assigned tothe mobile device based on predefined assignment criteria; and assignthe mobile device to the new service center location; identify a currentstatus of the support session, determine whether a current status of thesupport session indicates that the support session is near completion,if the support session is near completion then maintaining the currentsupport session with the current support center, and if the supportsession is less than a predetermined threshold of completion thenreassigning the support session to the new service center location whichis closer in distance.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein theprocessor is further configured to identify the mobile device ispresently communicating with the current service center and is receivingsupport messages of a first predetermined subject topic, identify aplurality of other service center locations different from the currentservice center location; select at least one other service centerlocation among the plurality of other service center locations which isassociated with the first predetermined subject topic, and determinewhether the at least one other service center location is closer indistance to the mobile device location than the current service centerlocation.
 9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the predefined assignmentcriteria is at least one of a location between the mobile device and thecurrent support center, a subject topic being discussed in the supportsession, a current completion status of the support session, and aprevious session occurrence between the mobile device and the currentsupport center.
 10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processorbeing configured to assign the mobile device to the new service centerlocation comprises the processor also being configured to assign themobile device to the new support center while the current support centersession is still operating.
 11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein theprocessor being configured to assign the mobile device to the newsupport center comprises the processor being configured to assign atleast one user support agent of the new support center to the mobiledevice while the present support agent of the current support center isstill assigned to the mobile device via the current support session. 12.The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configuredto discontinue the current support center from the current supportsession once the new support center agent and the present support agenthave confirmed the new support center has control of the supportsession.
 13. A non-transitory computer readable storage mediumconfigured to store instructions that when executed cause a processor toperform: receiving current location information of a mobile device;identifying a present location of the mobile device and a currentservice center assigned to the mobile device; determining whether a newservice center location at a remote location from the current servicecenter location should be assigned to the mobile device based onpredefined assignment criteria; and assigning the mobile device to thenew service center location; identifying a current status of the supportsession; determining whether a current status of the support sessionindicates that the support session is near completion; if the supportsession is near completion then maintaining the current support sessionwith the current support center; and if the support session is less thana predetermined threshold of completion then reassigning the supportsession to the new service center location which is closer in distance.14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13,wherein the processor is further configured to perform: identifying themobile device is presently communicating with the current service centerand is receiving support messages of a first predetermined subjecttopic; identifying a plurality of other service center locationsdifferent from the current service center location; selecting at leastone other service center location among the plurality of other servicecenter locations which is associated with the first predeterminedsubject topic; and determining whether the at least one other servicecenter location is closer in distance to the mobile device location thanthe current service center location.
 15. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the predefined assignmentcriteria is at least one of a location between the mobile device and thecurrent support center, a subject topic being discussed in the supportsession, a current completion status of the support session, and aprevious session occurrence between the mobile device and the currentsupport center.
 16. The non-transitory computer readable storage mediumof claim 13, wherein assigning the mobile device to the new servicecenter location comprises assigning the mobile device to the new supportcenter while the current support center session is still operating. 17.The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, whereinthe assigning the mobile device to the new support center comprisesassigning at least one user support agent of the new support center tothe mobile device while the present support agent of the current supportcenter is still assigned to the mobile device via the current supportsession and discontinuing the current support center from the currentsupport session once the new support center agent and the presentsupport agent have confirmed the new support center has control of thesupport session.